The clinical utilization of a pointed hollow needle is well known in the medical art for the administration of solutions or suspensions, such as medicaments, to a human or animal. After puncturing of the skin and introduction of the needle tip the content of a syringe typically connected to the rear part of the needle is administered to the human or animal through the hollow needle. The needle has then done its duty and is withdrawn from the human or animal.
In recent years there has been great concern over the contamination of medical personnel with a patient's blood and recognition that blood contaminated sharps including used needles must be disposed of safely to avoid an accidental needle stick. This concern has arisen because of the advent of currently incurable and fatal diseases, such as Acquired Immunosuppressive Deficiency Syndrome (“AIDS”), hepatitis, etc., which can be transmitted by the exchange of body fluids from an infected person to another person.
Various needle shields have been developed to address the problem of accidental needlesticks by blood contaminated sharps. It is known to arrange needle tip shielding devices on an injection or infusion needle, said shielding device having the ability to snap in front of the needle tip upon withdrawal of the needle. These needle tip shielding devices have historically been manufactured in stainless steel. After the manufacturing and packing of the devices for infusion and injection, the devices are sterilized for hygienic reasons. An example of such a needle tip shielding device is disclosed in EP1003588.
However, needle tip shielding devices will, when being arranged in for example a catheter hub, scratch and tear the polymeric catheter hub lumen, resulting in a major risk of flushing plastic material into the blood stream of the patient. Additionally, the manufacturing of such shielding devices of stainless steel is cumbersome and costly, since several punching and bending stations have to be used. Additionally, due to the metal sheet of such device, there is a high risk of “drawer effect” on the needle shaft. A softer needle shielding device could be used to avoid such scratching. For instance, a plastic needle shield would not scratch the plastic of the catheter hub. However, the softer material characteristics of such a needle shield could also create the risk of it being able to slide over the stopper close to the needle tip and off the needle.
Swedish Patent Application No. 1451516-7 discloses a needle tip shielding device with a needle shield and a short tubular stopping body that alleviates the risk of “drawer effect”. However, the small size of the tubular stopping body increases the manufacturing complexity of the device.
It would be desirable to provide an alternative needle shielding system which addresses the drawbacks associated with the above described needle tip shielding devices.